The wheels on the bus go round and round

So I made it to Temuco which is not much of a town, more of a transport hub on the PanAmerican Highway. Now when you hear PanAmerican Highway you think wide, straight, long and busy. Well, it´s one of those. Here in Temuco it´s more like the local high street, lined with shops and with traffic lights every block which was very good for me because it meant the bus could drop me off at the end of the road my hostel is in - no going all the way to the terminal to come back again. Also I can now say I´ve travelled on the PAH.

Now my plan was to bus it to Temuco then catch a train to Santiago, this being one of the few long distance train journeys you can do in South America. That was the plan. Until I discovered that the train only runs once a week, on Sundays and doesn´t start again until Sunday 20th January. 17 days from now. Bang goes that plan.

So tomorrow night I'm catching another bus this time to Santiago from where I hope to go immediately to Valparaiso for a couple of days. I intend to potter around and rest up as my cold has come back again - that´s the trouble with long distance travel, you keep rebreathing the same air - especially bad if your neighbours have onion sweat, stinky feet or a cold!